We’re Still Voting “Yes”

It is truly unfortunate that the senior class officers decided to discard last week’s proposal and accompanying survey that sought to donate over $15,000 to Haiti relief efforts in place of one of the semester’s senior cocktail events. While we continue to value the level of independent, critical thinking so characteristic of our student body, the execution of this debate transformed a selfless, well-intentioned solution into a navel-gazing, morally-polarizing dispute.

The heart of the matter got lost somewhere between indignation at this “threat” to students’ volition and overwrought jargon about privilege and sacrifice. The Argus would like to present an alternative perspective by choosing to donate money otherwise reserved for color printing in this issue to relief in Haiti. We are simply doing what we can—our choice is above all symbolic, born from solidarity, and not centered around unanswerable questions of whether we have sacrificed “enough.” It is unlikely that anyone on this campus does not feel some degree of compassion for those enduring the tragedy in Haiti. It is this solidarity, and the mutual respect it implies, that should, above all, guide discussion surrounding relief efforts.

With the debate over senior cocktails effectively dismantled, it is essential for all of us to move on from questions of moral hierarchy and personal choice when it comes to the relief effort: whether you attend the upcoming benefit concert at Psi U on Friday, show your support at Professor Gina Ulysse’s one-woman performance next Thursday, or contribute a few dollars to Partners In Health (our organization of choice), you can do more good by doing something than you can by agonizing about the categorical imperative.

The senior cocktails survey and debate has left many undergraduates startled, indignant, and confused. We can only hope that these events to do not deter disappointed students on either side of the debate from continuing to support Haiti in their own ways; that we might all overlook this momentary discord, so that we are all, in effect, voting “yes.”